I have to thank Hilary (whoever you are) for the inspiring story on her quest to complete the Steamtown marathon. Her blog gave me the idea for this blog to allow me to share my feelings on the long quest that I have ahead of me at this point.

The running of Steamtown has been on my mind since August of 2005, when I first decided to start racing. Since then, i’ve completed a series of 3 mile races, 5K’s, the Berwick diamond race and the Ocean Drive 10-Miler race. As of this day though, I am training for the Runners World half-marathon in Allentown.

I have approximately 6 weeks until I begin officially training for Steamtown, the target date to start is June 5th, 2006. That will give me 16 weeks to train for the race, and I intend to use a modified version of Hal Higdon’s Intermediate II training plan. I consider myself to be an intermediate runner, and this plan should get me where I need to be.

My concerns at this moment are the pains in my knees and the constant soreness in my back. I think I will be able to manage every other aspect of training, except for those physical limitations.

Regardless, I plan to update the blog every day of training, or if i’m not able to, at least every other or third day. I use these types of journal/blog entries when I do what I call reflections, which occurs in the last week before a race. It inspires me to read the hardship, pains and struggles i have felt during training and to appreciate that racing is not about race-day, its the quest to get to race day.